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A monumentous event!

On Saturday Simon had to return a book to the library. Now, that might not sound very exciting or indeed monumentous but it was! For that was the first book that Simon has ever read! For most parents of most children reading is something that happens without a big effort or too much difficulty but for us and for Simon that was not the case. One of his most profound difficulties has been learning to read, a combination of his learning difficulties and a bullying teacher in kindergarten had made him terrified about reading, terrified so much that pushing him to read resulted in an almost hysterical state, even last year after quite some time into his Arrowsmith program. So, imagine my delight when he told me that he was reading every night for 20 minutes, even more delight when he told me to leave him in peace for an hour so he could catch up with the reading he had missed whilst on our Northern Lights adventure last week, after which, you could have knocked me down with a feather, when said he had just got to such an exciting point in the story that he could hardly put the book down! Joy, joy, joy! Returning a library book was a big, big moment! And the sight of Simon engrossed in a book was not something I thought I would ever see! As Matt said in his last report, after saying he was pleased that Simon was reading every night ” a non-reader lives only one life, a reader may live a thousand lives”. And as my friend Annie says ” you are never lonely if you are a reader and have a book nearby”. Happy reading, Simon.